Fab 'n' Funky Christmas!

Yep, it's that time again, Christmas comes to the Fab 'n' Funky Challenge. I know, I know, there's still 238 days to go, but we're getting organised this year and we are featuring Christmas creations at the end of every month! Aren't we clever?! There'll be no excuse for me to be late with my Christmas cards this year.

Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is the fabulously zany Dr Digi's House of Stamps. There are some super fun images on this site and we've been treated to some of the fantastic Santa stamps for our DT creations. Mine is the Surfin' Santa. Because, well, that's just how we roll here in New Zealand for Christmas! Summer clothes, Jandals (that's flip flops to the UK crew), Pohutukawa trees in bloom (the Kiwi Christmas Tree), Pavlovas for Christmas pudding, bonfires and beaches. So when given the choice of which Santa to colour up, I of course wanted to get my hands on this fabulous 'Kiwi' Santa. I've a surfing mad brother-in-law who'll be getting this card for Christmas. 

I wanted to try and create a 'scene' for the card, but didn't have a lot of time to put it together, as I've been busy with the kiddos on Easter break here in New Zealand, so I've whipped it up double quick time, right before it was due to post. Ooops! Repeating to myself... must be better organised... (this would make my Swedish pal laugh out loud, as I'm always saying this and she ribs me for it!) So I stuck with a sand dune and summer sky, but I think it works. We have amazing Sand Dunes in New Zealand. Check out these ones in Te Paki, which are part of the 90 mile beach dunes. The fab Kaisercraft sentiment from a set called St Nicholas worked really well for this 'Kiwi Christmas' card to celebrate our 'Summer' joys at Christmas.

The paper I used for the sky is from Papercraft Inspirations magazine, issue #124 for April 2014. It came in the wonderful freebie pack with decoupage characters and some lovely papers. I have to wait almost two months to get a copy of this magazine now that I'm back in New Zealand. But it's still one of my favourite reads, so it's worth the wait and always such a lovely surprise to see some of my blog buddies creations pop up in it! The cloudy blue sky was the perfect backdrop for my Surfin' Santa.

If you look closely, you might notice that I've paper pieced Santa's swim shorts. I've used a fun wavy sea paper from an earlier issue of Papercraft Inspirations and fussy cut the shorts to layer over the image. I wanted to give him hibiscus or similar patterned shorts, but when I found this paper, I thought it would fit brilliantly and I think it really does. The paper is from the Surf's Up set of free papers from issue #116 of Papercraft Inspirations. The sand dune is cut from the yellow paper in this same set.

I wanted to give Santa a slightly 'sun kissed' look, so I've added a little Coral Promarker to his nose and shoulder. Subtle, but it's there. I didn't want to over do it. The Kiwi sun is fierce because we have a hole in the Ozone layer right over our country. So Kiwi's have to be particularly careful to wear sunscreen and hats in the hot summer sun. I always colour with Promarkers, so kinda goes without saying that the rest of the image was inked that way too.

The final touch for the card was to add some shells. These were collected from a little bay just a few minutes up the road from my house. There's a fabulous kids playground there, so it's awesome for the kiddos. Now I said the shells were the final touch right? But on showing my hubby, he suggested I added some Glossy Accents to the sunnies. I do listen to him occasionally, and this was one of those times! So here is Santa, on a couple of different angles to show his glossy sunnies. I must confess, my hubby does have some good ideas!

Thanks for popping in on my little corner of blogworld today. I hope you've enjoyed the visit. Pop on over to the Fab 'n' Funky Challenge blog and join us with your fabulous Christmas cards. We look forward to seeing them! Big hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
613 Avenue Create: #69 ~ Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesdays: #170 ~ Fussy Cutting
Addicted to Stamps Challenge: #93 ~ Holiday
Crafting From The Heart: #16 ~ Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge: #54 ~ Anything Goes
Milk Coffee Challenge: Use Those Bright Colours!
Simon Says Monday Challenge: Not So Mellow Yellow
I Love Promarkers: Not Quite Straight (Curve in Sand Dune)
Whoopsidaisy Challenge: Hand Coloured Image (Coloured with Promarkers)
Quirky Crafts Challenge: #9 ~ Something beginning with S (Santa, Sand, Shells, Surfing!)
Jingle Belles: All Bundled Up (Layers - 3 plus fussy cut Santa - all mounted on foam strips)